My rating: 1 of 5 stars
“Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing.”
----Emma Donoghue
Emma Donoghue, an Irish best-selling novelist, has penned a terrific tale about a five year old boy whose whole universe is centered inside the Room. The Room is a compelling story, told from a five year old boy's perspective, about determination, motherly love, bravery and finally stepping into a new universe where everything moves too fast.
Synopsis:
To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.
Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.
It's not that I heard about this book right after it's movie-adaption, actually, I came to know about this book back in the year 2010 when it was nominated for the Man Booker. But when I read some mixed reviews, mostly negative, I decided not to read it. yes the synopsis definitely sounds fascinating and something that immediately pulled me to read this book. But I decided to go against my heart's desire and to skip reading this book. Years passed, and I forgot about the book.
When Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay illuminated the movie theaters with their outstanding performances as "Ma" and "Jack" in the movie with the same name as the book, Room, I could not stop myself from buying this book. And yes I know I do regret buying it, mostly reading the pathetic and narrative of a five year old boy named Jack accounting his life inside an 11*11 Room, but Larson and Tremblay's splendid acting revolved inside my brain while I was reading the tale. So blame it on Larson and Tremblay, who made me buy the book and read it.
From the screen play to the way the dialogues were delivered to the adaption of the small 11*11 Room as a garden shed with a skylight to the technique to the story build up, every thing has been done as per the book, rather better than the book. The movie as seen from Jack's eyes is wonderful, enlightening and somewhat vulnerable and sad, yet he was constantly in the process of adjusting with new information about the world outside his Room.
The book could not make the readers feel for the characters or even for their quandary. Well, we cannot blame the main character for being too poor with his narrative, he is just a five year old boy, whose intellect level is not like an adult or even the way he perceives human emotions. We can definitely b lame the author for choosing a five year old boy as the narrator of this book. Jack doesn't understand the real meaning of the words "kidnapped" or "abducted" when his Ma narrates her plight to her son expecting some sympathy from him. Similarly, if Jack does not understand that old Nick did something bad to his Ma, then how can we, the readers, can feel that dreadful pain as well as anger against Old Nick!! Well that's just a small example.
Moreover, the story build up is not at all good as the pacing is too slow, in fact way too boring. Neither the story compels the readers nor it enlightens. In fact, it fails in its every category possible, except the plot.
Well, that's just me, a seasoned reader, who could not feel any connection to Donoghue's book, Room. And I can not say for sure whether other readers are going to hate or trash the book like I did, they might even love it!
Verdict: Please do not buy this book!!!!!!
Courtesy: My Hard-earned electronic money! What else!!
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Author Info:
Emma is the youngest of eight children of Frances and Denis Donoghue. She attended Catholic convent schools in Dublin, apart from one year in New York at the age of ten. In 1990 she earned a first-class honours BA in English and French from University College Dublin, and in 1997 a PhD (on the concept of friendship between men and women in eighteenth-century English fiction) from the University of Cambridge. Since the age of 23, Donoghue has earned her living as a full-time writer. After years of commuting between England, Ireland, and Canada, in 1998 she settled in London, Ontario, where she lives with her partner and their son and daughter.
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Wow Aditi! hardcore! But I think you've been most fair. It's good that the movie adaptation took the salient points of the story and made it work. You also raise a valid point about the book being told by a five year old, so that's fair. A pity the book did not exceed your already low expectations though. I don't think every book that wins the Man Booker is necessarily a good read either, but some gems do come through. Here's hoping future reads are better for you.
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